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Korean Smartphones Have Mandatory Shutter Sounds, 8 in 10 Want It Muted
- underseacables 3y agoCould this not be removed on an Android phone, or is Android in SK locked down to prevent this?
- gruez 3y agoAt the very least it can be removed by physically disabling the speakers. So any software measure (eg. locked bootloaders) isn't really worth enforcing too hard.
- cubefox 3y ago"Physically disabling" how? Opening the phone and disconnecting the speakers? In my phone the earpiece acts as a second speaker, so calls would no longer be possible either.
- fbdab103 3y agoIf you are really dedicated to the task of clandestine photos, someone could purchase a dedicated point and shoot. Or a secondary phone for which permanently disabling the speakers is not a concern. Or just shoot video.
- zazazache 3y ago[flagged]
- pwg 3y agoUblock origin - default settings (in the "I'm an advanced user" mode) to block all javascript. I saw no cookie consent banner while reading the first part of the article.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- vGPU 3y agoIs this related to the same creepshot epidemic from Japan?
- tromp 3y ago> Japan and South Korea are among the only countries in the world This "among the only" strikes me as a miscarriage of semantics... If there are others (presumably very few) then please list them too.
- fbdab103 3y agoPresumably a catch-all to avoid having to do research and/or missing an entry.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- EForEndeavour 3y ago> South Korea has a problem with unwanted, clandestine photography relating to upskirting and when mobile phones were introduced, authorities moved to stop perverts from taking photos of people without permission. 1. My mind is blown that this oddly specific behaviour was apparently so common that the government mandated all cellphone cameras must play shutter sounds that cannot be muted. What the hell? 2. Do third-party camera apps also trigger the shutter sound? What about recording a video? If not, doesn't this law just push pervs to snap video instead of still shots while unnecessarily degrading user experience across society?
- gruez 3y ago>1. My mind is blown that this oddly specific behaviour was apparently so common that the government mandated all cellphone cameras must play shutter sounds that cannot be muted. What the hell? You're missing the other possibility: incompetent politicians writing bad polices to respond to the latest moral panic. Plane hijackings are pretty rare, yet we have TSA screening and no liquids over 100ml on flights.
- EA-3167 3y agoThe rarity of plane hijackings is balanced by the decades of harm they can do, even beyond the obvious death and destruction. 9-11 for example led to 20 years of ruinous war, trillions wasted, and many lives lost, not to mention geopolitical realities which led to even more death and loss of money. Taking extreme caution to prevent a recurrence of that, not to mention protecting lives and a whole industry, probably doesn't compare to upskirt shots.
- flotzam 3y agoAs usual, GrapheneOS disables this kind of anti-user restriction: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_frameworks_base/commit/383f2ad441759cc4fdadefe133dad875d7be31d1 https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_frameworks_base/commi...
- falcolas 3y agoNotably missing is the gender breakdown between the survey answers. Is it split equally, or biased along gender (and perhaps age) lines?
- crazygringo 3y agoI don't know why you're being downvoted -- if there were ever a poll that should have a male/female breakdown, it's this one, since the issue by definition affects the genders differently.
- zwog 3y agoHow is this with videos? Couldn't you just start recording a video from a safe distance and than continue to creep around?
- xanderlewis 3y agoThat’s true. It only mandates a sound at the beginning (and end?) of recording.
- jjcm 3y agoThis is one of my pet peeves about iOS as well. You’re able to customize and disable sounds of every noise the phone makes except the camera shutter. You can place the phone in silent mode to disable it, but doing so will obviously disable every other sound as well. Interestingly this also applies to screenshots. This typically leads to this learned behavior now whenever I’m taking a photo or screenshot: Silence phone -> photo or screenshot -> unsilence phone It’s a quite annoying anti-pattern.
- mcny 3y agoYou can’t even set the sound volume of music for example in a game separately from the volume of your alarm. If I want to lower the volume while I play a game or a YouTube video, I have to remember to increase the volume before I fall asleep.
- Izkata 3y agoIs there any Tasker-like app for iOS? One of the things I use it for on Android is to give every game its own volume setting, which is automatically applied when I start the game and automatically reverted to the previous setting when I close the game.
- mcny 3y agoYes, shortcuts is built into iOS. I have a shortcut to send me an email when I start charging my phone and when I stop charging my phone. I can’t get the current charge percentage though in the email body as a variable. :/ It is not for work or anything I just wanted to see what I could do with shortcuts automation.
- TheRoque 3y agoWhat's funny is that's it's not about "Korean smartphones", it's about "smartphones on Korea". A friend of mine bought an iphone in France, and when she went to visit Korea, it started doing the shutter sound. It's just purely based on the localization! Same applies if a Korean moves abroad, I assume.
- dharmab 3y agoiOS uses geofencing. Android typically uses the purchase region.
- WD40ForRust2 3y agoAndroid wins again!
- gnicholas 3y agoIt sounds like people have differing experiences with foreign phones being used in Korea. [1] Perhaps it is based on what SIM card you have installed, as one redditor suggested? 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/14el5lr/phone_shutter_sound_law/?rdt=40810 https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/14el5lr/phone_shutte...
- TheRoque 3y agoI doubt it's the only thing. Me and my friend moved to Korea, had the same Korean sim card. Only thing that changed is that I have an Android (Xiaomi), and she has an iPhone. Mine didn't start to do any sound.
- xanderlewis 3y agoIt’s the same in Japan. I used to have a Japanese iPhone 8 that would make a shutter sound even on silent (in the UK), but apparently now the latest models decide whether to make the sound or not depending on the location.
- 1-6 3y agoOne time, a random stranger shot pictures of my little daughter at Costco. I confronted the creep and also reported him to the staff. Costco staff couldn't do anything about it but the manager offered to escort our family around. I appreciate every little tool to keep pervs away from ruining a good thing.
- 1-6 3y agoIt's a minor inconvenience to many but it's a necessity to a few who desperately need it to keep safe. What if I wasn't vigilant about my surroundings? Could someone weaker have been able to confront the individual? These are the many reasons why I welcome the camera shutter sound as a required feature.